The Black Hole War (Susskind) well worth the read about cosmology and black holes as well as personalities.

Ah, all excellent choices. It's a long road to make it through The Road to Reality. Honestly, I think much of the material could have been presented a lot more clearly. When I was finishing my Ph.D. at MIT, my advisor (CS, but also teaches physics) held a weekly reading group to work through the book. I don't think they made it more than about halfway through. I've also made it about halfway through, twice, a few years apart. The most recent time, I put it down and bought some books on manifolds. Then I got too busy...

The other Greene books, Fabric of the Cosmos and The Hidden Reality, are also great. If you like Susskind, I recommend The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design. You might also like The Little Book of String Theory by Gubser.

But to really understand string theory... probably you will have to dive into Polchinski. That is serious stuff. Making it through The Road to Reality might be adequate preparation. Or having a solid foundation in QFT and GR.

jjameson

posted: 8/17/2012 at 5:33 AMmodified: 8/17/2012 at 5:41 AM

Love to meet you and hash through some of this during an ultra! Come to the midwest!

Will definitely look at the choices you suggested.

Really, I'm more of a dabbler; but find I understand enough to make it interesting.